There’s a lot of changes around the web these days and keeping the information and APIs current to connect as Google Health was set up requires maintenance 
from the developing side and perhaps it was all money going out as an expense and not much coming back. I joined both Google Health and HealthVault when they became available a couple years ago and evaluated and used both. The device side of Google Health was slow to catch up with Microsoft Healthvault so in that respect they were out marketed.
The system was easy enough to use and brought medical prescription records and lab results in, so information processes were similar to HealthVault, but again the big dividing line was “devices” where HealthVault went right away. In addition, Google has some other interests they are chasing right now in other business areas to build and sometimes it requires a greater focus on few items, just like Cisco has done as well. If you are spread too thin and can’t product the desired results then it’s time to take a look at the over all big picture. Also when you step back and take a look at other “Google branded” programs that connected, there were not many and again this is where HealthVault took the ball and ran with it as they have suites of medical software to connect and create greater value and in today’s world of Health It and that makes a big difference. There’s still the over all problem of not enough consumers using a PHR and that comes from the big lack of role models too as we don’t have any, but everyone repeat like a magpie and tells you “you should do it”.
Granted that’s another problem but I hear this day in and day out and shoot half the people who write these blazing reviews on PHRS never use one, so that’s issue from the entire consumer side and we don’t even know if the Surgeon General uses the Surgeon General’s PHR either, silence is deafening from Washington on PHRs for the most part. Not a one will share any of their experiences so this coupled with Google’s other interests with competition barking at their door with other web services probably lead to the announcement today too. You have until the end of the year to move your records and after that, they will be deleted.
Another Google Program called “Power Meter” for monitoring electricity in the home is also being discontinued in September. BD
Google has officially announced plans to shutter Google Health, its personal health record platform, come January 1, 2012. Data stored in Google Health will continue to be available for download until January 1, 2013. Google plans to add a direct transfer option to Google Health in the coming weeks that will enable users to transfer their health data to any other system that makes use of the Direct Project protocol. After that date any remaining data in Google Health will be deleted.
“In the end, while we weren’t able to create the impact we wanted with Google Health, we hope it has raised the visibility of the role of the empowered consumer in their own care,” Google Health’s senior product manager Aaron Brown wrote in the company’s blog. “We continue to be strong believers in the role information plays in healthcare and in improving the way people manage their health, and we’re always working to improve our search quality for the millions of users who come to Google every day to get answers to their health and wellness queries.”
Official: Google Health shuts down because it couldn’t scale adoption | mobihealthnews
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